During the rare years that a very high tide happens to coincide with a wet storm, the bay overfills with water and I can be found in a skin-on-frame kayak towing logs, very very slowly, toward one of three boat ramps. Eventually I'll get one onto a trailer, and then sometime a year or so after that I'll find a way to con my buddy Mark into bringing the portable sawmill down so we can cut it into boards. It's neither an efficient nor economical way to make lumber, but it's still one of my favorite things to do.
Most of the good wood washed away in the '07 flood, and a lot of what does show up is nabbed by guys with power boats, but I still pull a decent log now and then, or at least, what I think is a decent log. In this case the nice fat, 8 foot fir log I was excited about turned out to be spruce, with little rot pockets, and tension that caused every board to spring into a bit of a curve. Dissappointed, I mentally marked it "construction lumber" and set it aside.
It took a bit of thinking to figure out the bed for the trailer, because the perimeter is relatively unsupported I had to make sure to land the legs onto major frame members. A minimalist design lent itself the the most possible storage beneath and the least amount of weight in the trailer. Now ideally a bedframe should have a little give, but not sag, and this is where my friends the strong, lightweight, and slightly curved, Sitka spruce boards finally found a home. I milled them to full dimensions for strength and to keep the aesthetic just a little "meatier" that store bought dimensions.
A simple frame built from wood I have a personal connection is all I need to feel content for today, and typing this from a BED after three months of sleeping on the floor, now that's a real bonus!
Most of the good wood washed away in the '07 flood, and a lot of what does show up is nabbed by guys with power boats, but I still pull a decent log now and then, or at least, what I think is a decent log. In this case the nice fat, 8 foot fir log I was excited about turned out to be spruce, with little rot pockets, and tension that caused every board to spring into a bit of a curve. Dissappointed, I mentally marked it "construction lumber" and set it aside.
It took a bit of thinking to figure out the bed for the trailer, because the perimeter is relatively unsupported I had to make sure to land the legs onto major frame members. A minimalist design lent itself the the most possible storage beneath and the least amount of weight in the trailer. Now ideally a bedframe should have a little give, but not sag, and this is where my friends the strong, lightweight, and slightly curved, Sitka spruce boards finally found a home. I milled them to full dimensions for strength and to keep the aesthetic just a little "meatier" that store bought dimensions.
A simple frame built from wood I have a personal connection is all I need to feel content for today, and typing this from a BED after three months of sleeping on the floor, now that's a real bonus!
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